ROCHELLE — On Tuesday, the Rochelle Police Department held its annual National Night Out event at Atwood Park.

The event included a helicopter landing, taser and K9 demonstrations, booths put up by local businesses and organizations, free food and drinks, music and dance by local performers, and appearances by the Rochelle Fire Department.

“Things have gone fantastic tonight,” RPD Chief Pete Pavia said. “The weather is beautiful. The crowd speaks for itself. Every year this event sees such a great turnout. We've had officers from other departments come and remark at how much larger and different it is from theirs. We had 47 local businesses and organizations come out for this. It's crazy. I love the interaction with the community. They see us and come out and talk to us. It's on more of a personal level here. I just love how people come out. The community just loves this event.”

RPD K9 Officer Trevor Owen and K9 Odie led the K9 demonstration and explained the skills the dog has and the tasks it's used for such as item and people searches and apprehending subjects.

The taser demonstration was led by Officer Ryan Kovacs and he explained to those in attendance how the taser works and the situations it's used in. RPD Community Service Officer Damen Harrington volunteered to be tased in the demonstration.

Planning for National Night Out goes on throughout the year, and a meeting is held the day after the event to talk about what went right and wrong and what can be improved upon. Pavia thanked the community for its support of RPD both during National Night Out and the rest of the year. 

“Rochelle loves our department and they're so supportive of it,” Pavia said. “We can't thank the community enough. We cannot do our jobs without that. It helps us.”

Pavia said the event being free is common at many events like it hosted by law enforcement organizations across the nation on Aug. 6. RPD wanted to entice people to come out with their families and “give crime the night off.”

“People call us all year long about wanting to be a part of this,” Pavia said. “And we welcome everyone, but we won't have anyone out here charging. We want the families to come out and eat for free. We have free shaved ice and games and giveaways. This is not about bringing in food trucks and charging. It's about being free for everyone to get people out here.”

Pavia said his favorite part of the event is seeing officers interact with the community. Much of RPD’s personnel that participated Tuesday were off-duty. 

“I send a message to everyone on the department and everyone shows up,” Pavia said. “They just love the event. We do have some new officers. For some of them, this is their first National Night Out. And they can't believe how many people are out here. It's a great way for them to meet the community. Kids see us out here and we talk with them. And when they see us later on in a more official capacity, they're not scared of us. It shows them that they can approach us.”